May 2021

The Wakefield Fire Department responded to 324 emergency incidents during the month of May including 32 box alarms and 292 still alarms. The department responded to four requests for mutual aid during May, twice to Melrose and once each to Lynnfield and Revere. The department received mutual aid six times during the month of May, three times from Lynnfield, twice from Reading and once from Saugus.

A crew from Engine 1 under Lieutenant Erik Cole covered a vacant Lynnfield Fire Station while crews in that community were tied up at a structure fire on Carpenter Road during the evening of May 15. Firefighters from Engine 2 under the command of Acting Lieutenant Arthur Fennelly assisted the Revere Fire Department at the scene of a 5-alarm fire at 139 Endicott Street during the afternoon of May 20.

Firefighters under the command of Acting Lieutenant Arthur Fennelly responded to a report of an injured bird on Crystal Lake during the afternoon of May 20. Firefighters responded to the Broadway pumping station and met up with wildlife rescue and water department personnel to arrange for the rescue of a swan with a fishing lure stuck in its beak. Firefighters Rich Cardavelli and Nolan Curran donned life jackets and operated the water department boat docked at Crystal Lake to a remote cove in the rear of the lake. The firefighters were able to isolate the swan using a fishing net and bring it over to the wildlife rescue personnel, who were able to remove the fishing lure with a multi-purpose utility tool. The swan was then released to rejoin its babies and swim away unharmed.

Five new recruit firefighters, Samuel Carr, Richard Bruno, Charles Curran, John Panzini and Jarrod Fitzpatrick, were sworn in during a brief ceremony held in the community room of the Public Safety Building presided over by Wakefield’s Town Clerk Betsy Sheeran. Four of the five recruits were funded by a federal staffing grant worth more than $1.2 million that fully funds the salary and benefits of the four firefighters for three years.  The fifth position will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Wakefield Fire Lieutenant Louis Sardella. The new firefighters will raise the staffing level of the department to 55 members, including four duty groups of 13 members, a Fire Prevention Officer, a Deputy Fire Chief and the Fire Chief. The five new members will be enrolled in Class # 295 of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy Recruit Training Program, a ten-week training program starting on July 26 with an anticipated graduation date of October 8, 2021. The recruits will participate in training activities and be enrolled into an Emergency Medical Technician training program until they begin their Fire Academy Class in July. The department welcomes these new recruits and wishes them a long and productive career in the fire service.

All Groups participated in a training program conducted by Northeast Rescue Systems involving the use of their self-rescue rope repelling systems (bail-out kits) on May 18-21. All groups continued their annual in-service business inspections during the month of May.  All groups conducted training on Lake Quannapowitt with the department’s two rescue boats, the Boston Whaler and Avon rubber rescue boat, during the month of May. All of the department’s fire hose was inspected and pressure-tested during May. All of the department’s small hand tolls were inventoried, cleaned and serviced during the month of May. All duty groups drilled on various multi-company hose evolutions during the month of May

Incident Response Report

Fire Prevention Report